Recovery of NaBH4 from BH3OH− hydrolyzed intermediate on the AgI surface treated with different electrochemical methods

This paper presents the investigation of the activity of silver electrode treated by cyclic voltammetric (CV) method with H2O2 + KI in aqueous solution on the oxidation of NaBH4. Among the various treatment solutions investigated, H2O2 + KI solution shows the best performance with the maximum catalytic activity. CV treatment in H2O2 + KI on Ag electrode improves the catalytic activity more than bulk electrolysis (BE) due to increase in surface porosity. Apart from the catalytic effect of this surface in the oxidation of BH4− it was also observed that there is a formation of hydrolysis product of BH3OH− of BH4− during the anodic scan between −0.25 and −0.45 V which is seen to be converted back to BH4− during the cathodic scan.